Guten Tag, Deutschland! And a good day, it is. Today, we announce our new partnership with the renowned and respected Membran Entertainment Group, based in Germany. With them, we kick off The Orchard GmbH, run by Membran CEO, Manlio Celotti. We’ve gotten to know the German market over the years — …

Marketing Drivers are the absolute most important thing you must be communicating to your client rep, when working on priority new releases. We’ve already broken down the what, when, why, and overall best practices for marketing drivers. Today, we’re going to introduce you to the 4 commandments of communicating these invaluable assets. …

Sundance, we have arrived! And in a very big way. Just last night, we nabbed rights to The Overnight in Park City, UT on the 4th day of the Festival. It’s a steamy, sexy comedy that already created sparks on Sundance’s red carpet, and after some intense bidding rounds, we secured it …

A few months ago, I saw Catey Shaw’s music video for “Human Contact” for the first time. It was a flawless concoction: an infectious summer Pop jam mixed with a quirky, aqua-haired girl dancing in street-wear. All I wanted to do was cash in my vacation days, trap my scantily …

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What would your first reaction be if you found a bone and revolver buried in the backyard of a person’s home you knew? That’s exactly what sparks debate and an entire movie plot in director and co-writer Joe Swanberg‘s (Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas) latest flick Digging for Fire, which also happens to be our latest film acquisition at Sundance!

With this brief (and seemingly rare) separation from one another, Tim and Lee have their own bit of fun (think boozy night with the boys and night out on the town by way of motorcycle) without their significant other. Swanberg delights with his signature “hangout” storyline (shot entirely on 35mm film) and “digs” deep into questions about the skeletons that should and should not be left in the closet (or ground, for that matter) in one’s marriage.

What’s next for Swanberg and his cast of characters? We’ll be distributing Digging for Fire in North America, so be on the lookout for that release date. For more info on the deal, read our press release or check out press coverage from The Wrap and Indiewire.

As you’ve probably noticed by now, iTunes has made several changes to the store in the US. One addition you may want to participate in is the $5.99 Albums feature. You will see this feature as a slider on the Music Main Page and as bricks on each of the genre pages. If you’ve been wondering how you can have your titles featured in this campaign, look no further!

Any album with a retail price of $5.99 on iTunes is automatically eligible for placement in the $5.99 sale. The bricks on the genre page will of course require that a title be in that genre to be included. The slider on the Main Page will change to a different genre every week. iTunes has provided the schedule through to the end of March, so check in with your client manager to find out more.

Although any title with a retail price of $5.99 is eligible for this feature, it is entirely programmed by sales velocity. Placements within are not pitched for, and there is no editorial component. This means that if you have priced an album to surface in this feature, you will want to be doing everything to drive traffic to iTunes and push up those sales!

Keep this new feature in mind when you want to campaign a title — if your artist is on tour, you have catalogue pieces to highlight around a new release, or any reason you may want to place a title on sale. But don’t forget to support from your side as well!

Israel’s 1948 War of Independence has been well-documented in textbooks and feature films over the years, but one aspect of that war had yet to be uncovered. Until now. Director Roberta Grossman and Producer Nancy Spielberg (yep, that Spielberg) teamed up to create Above and Beyond, the story of a group of Jewish-Americans who risked their lives to support Israel’s fight for freedom.

The documentary sits down with the core group of men who comprised 90% of the Israeli air service, though none of them was actually from the country. Rather, they were the Machal, or “volunteers from abroad” who left their established lives in America to support their Jewish brothers in Israel the best way they thought possible. One such member of this band of brothers, Al Schwimmer, used his flight engineer expertise and WWII air transport experience to smuggle aircrafts and pilots into Israel. Upon reading about his death in the New York Times, Spielberg felt the need to tell his (and so many others’) story.

The documentary gives an account of a rarely-mentioned part of Israeli Air Force history — the foreign men who assisted in its creation — and the airmen give detailed accounts of how, through perseverance, they helped secure Israel’s independence.

We are thrilled to announce that we’ll be releasing the film to all North American audiences beginning this Friday, January 30th! Check out more press coverage from Variety, and watch the trailer below:

I’m Jim Martin and I’m so excited to be a part of The Orchard. I’ll be working with Danny Grant on Sports movie acquisition and marketing from the West Coast office. I’m a lifelong fan of action sports, especially skateboarding and snowboarding. Fanclub Media, the company I founded back in 2008 which was just recently merged into The Orchard, was the first to launch an Action Sports movie on iTunes, Forum Snowboards’ That. When I’m not at work, I meditate and do yoga and am really into astrophotography. I like being outdoors and hanging out with my friends and family.

Sundance, we have arrived! And in a very big way. Just last night, we nabbed rights to The Overnightin Park City, UT on the 4th day of the Festival. It’s a steamy, sexy comedy that already created sparks on Sundance’s red carpet, and after some intense bidding rounds, we secured it for distribution in North America.

The film stars some of Hollywood’s finest: Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation), Jason Schwartzman (The Darjeeling Limited, The Grand Budapest Hotel), Taylor Schilling (Orange Is the New Black) and Judith Godreche (The Man in the Iron Mask). As if that’s not enough for this A-lister soiree, the Duplass brothers (yep, the ones basically owning Sundance this year with all their projects) are behind the film’s production.

So what’s the story here? Well, even though the movie’s storyline is based on a chance meeting of two kids at a playground, it’s definitely not suitable for children’s eyes. Alex (Scott) and Emily (Schilling) are new to the LA area and on the lookout for friends their age. Their son hits it off with Kurt’s (Schwartzman), who incidentally invites the couple to his home for dinner and a playdate of their own. As you might’ve guessed, the dinner party tuns into a swingers’ party and the couples’ night gets steadily kinkier.

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About The Orchard

The Orchard is a pioneering music, video and film distribution company and top-ranked Multi Channel Network operating in more than 25 global markets. Founded in 1997, we empower businesses and creators in the entertainment industry.